Christian Hospitality Research Articles

A case study exploring the role of Christian hospitality in Salvation Army staff and volunteer approaches to supporting survivors of domestic abuse (DA)

ABSTRACT Using The Salvation Army’s (TSA) The Link Café (TLC) in South London as a case study, this paper explores how the approach of Salvation Army staff and volunteers to working with survivors of domestic abuse (DA) models Christian hospitality. Hospitality is one of TSA’s Family Ministries Department’s seven values; however, as DA is an under-researched area of TSA provision, it is necessary to explore what this looks like in practice. Data collected through five semi-structured interviews with TLC staff and volunteers reveal a hospitality rooted in recognition of survivors as those marginalised; a hospitality that emphasises relationships and ‘being with’ survivors over prescriptive support. Even with necessary boundaries, this hospitality opens up space for genuine empowerment, where each survivor is seen as one ‘who bears gifts’ and attempts are made to enable ‘guests’ to become ‘hosts’. However, as with many faith-based organisations’ responses to social injustice, this study suggests that the ‘Christian’ in TLC’s hospitality is implicit rather than explicit. It nevertheless challenges TSA to think more intentionally about the extent to which Christian hospitality is and can be lived out in its different expressions to ensure DA survivors are welcomed, empowered, and supported effectively.

THE ANCIENT CHURCH AND THE ORIGINS OF THE MEDICAL ASSISTANCE SYSTEM

The writings of the Holy Fathers reveal a variety of attitudes towards medicine, ranging from acknowledging it and displaying extreme trust in doctors' prescriptions to reasons for distrust; however, there is almost always a Christian concern to legitimize medicine as a useful tool for healing, but at the same time to consider it a gift of God who instituted it. Numerous testimonies also convey the metaphor of Christ "medicus", variously described and circulated in both East and West. The combination of Christian care and professional medicine gave rise to the first hospitals, also inspired by the Christian hospitality and philanthropy available in various establishments in both East and West. The new structures were established as centres of treatment and effectively assumed a monopoly on universal medical practice

Institutional Change in the Church: A Theological Reflection

The church in many parts of the north Atlantic world is experiencing a period of institutional change as parts of the church combine with or fold into one another. This essay is a theological reflection on one such process of institutional change, namely, the work of two Canadian theological colleges to form a new ecumenical institution. That process was assisted by and deepened theological reflection on the nature of the church as the body of Christ, the importance of Christian hospitality, and the significance of people committing to other people in the context of the Christian faith. Institutional change will continue to happen in the church and must be resourced by adequate theological reflection to ensure its success.

MELIHAT SIKAP HOSPITALITAS KRISTEN BERDASARKAN ANALISIS TEOLOGIS LUKAS 10:25-37 DAN IMPLIKASINYA TERHADAP UPAYA PENCEGAHAN KONFLIK AGAMA DI INDONESIA

As social beings, humans are never free from conflict. As social beings too, humans need other people while still being hospitable/hospitality to stay harmonius in living together. But the fact is that the attitude of hospitality is an attitude that is stilldifficult to do. It is proven there are still many conflicts going on, especially religious conflicts in Indonesia, which are motivated by various differences. The purpose of this research is to see Christian hospitality based on Lukw 10:25-37 as a solution to prevent religious conflicts from occurring. Through descriptive qualitative methods, it was concluded that the hospitality attitude shown by the Samaritans, who are open and tolerant of differences can be applied as an effort to prevent religious conflicts in Indonesia.
 Keywords: Hospitality; Samaritans; Religoious Conflict.

Transforming Hospitality in the Theology of Paul: Lessons for Today's Church

Hospitality is central to ministry, but the stress churches give to welcome can sometimes dilute the call to discipleship. In this article, I explore Paul's approach to hospitality, which includes transformation alongside welcome. Following a general discussion of Christian hospitality, I trace Paul's approach to hospitality in three areas: the hospitality of God, hospitality within the church, and hospitality toward outsiders. In my final section, I unpack some contemporary implications of Paul's approach.

PRACTICE AND FUNCTION OF ECCLESIASTICAL RECOMMENDATION IN LATE ANTIQUITY (FOURTH – FIFTH CENTURIES AD)

In the ancient world, recommendation was an important expression of patronage, effecting introduction, mediation, problem‑solving. Christianity took over and adapted Roman models to suit new realities of Christian travel and hospitality, pastoral care, recruitment, career advancement (clerical as well as ascetic), the articulation of communion and orthodoxy, among others. This paper explores the functions of late antique Christian recommendation practices, its complex and often ambiguous typology, with particular emphasis on the correspondence – or discrepancy – between evidence collected from extant papyri, canonical prescriptions, and examples from epistolary corpora of known authors.

Towards an Asian decolonial Christian hospitality: Shù (恕), Pachinko, and the migrant other

ABSTRACT The community of faith and the wider community live in multicultural and transnational realities. Because the people of a community are entangled with various contexts, the identity of a community is fluid, porous, hybrid, and constantly changing. In response to a motley environment, faith communities need a multi-voiced and interactive ministry that is deeply aware of and involved in the knowledge and experiences of those who are historically marginalised by colonisation and recurring violence. This article proposes hospitality based on lament in a way that acknowledges, empathizes with, and participates in those suffering from the various oppressions brought by a multicultural reality. This study will present Pachinko to deepen our insight into the oppression we have faced and to explore how hospitality is working in oppression. This study investigates hospitality based on the Asian concept of shù (恕) and argues that lament can be an energy that is used in the practice of hospitality. Then this study explores how hospitality applies to multicultural faith communities. Through these studies, a way can and will be suggested not only about practicing epistemic justice but also about how to consider the possibility of ideal hospitality.

PERAN PENDIDIK KRISTEN DALAM PENCEGAHAN KENAKALAN REMAJA DALAM MENYONGSONG MASYARAKAT 5.0

The lives of today's teenagers determine the future of a nation because teenagers are the nation's future assets. However, recently juvenile delinquency behavior is often very concerning. Amid this situation, the role of Christian educators is very much needed to foster and guide teenagers so that they have good character. The formulation of the problem in this paper is what is the role of Christian religious teachers in the church in preventing juvenile delinquency? So the purpose of this study was to determine the role of Christian religious teachers in the church in preventing juvenile delinquency. This study uses a library research approach. From this research, the results are, first, Christian educators play a role in implementing Christian hospitality. This means that Christian educators should love teenagers and make it happen by providing motivation and encouragement to teenagers to become good people. Second, play a role in conducting counseling guidance. Counseling carried out on adolescents is expected to provide true knowledge about God and satisfaction in receiving the counseling service. Third, play a role in developing youth talents. Because of this role, teenagers can develop the talents that exist in themselves and teenagers can do more positive and good activities. Fourth, make discipleship of the youth. Because teenagers must be guided to stay centered on God.

Nourishing the Body, Disenfranchising the Spirit: Convivial Hospitality, Dignity, and Commensality in a Presbyterian Church in Toronto

Within the multicultural and multiracial city of Toronto Ontario, the space of the church is a place for racialized and white Presbyterian women to negotiate convivial hospitality, dignity, and notions of the good life. I use the concept of convivial hospitality to show how conviviality aligns with Christian hospitality when it centres on people’s will for spiritual and physical wellbeing through their relationships and interactions with others. This article focuses on the affective labour involved in the preparation of church community dinners, which were developed and organized by older, racialized Presbyterian women. Meal-time preparations are moments when convivial hospitality emerges among racialized women who pass the time by sharing their food, memories, and life stories, thus affirming a sense of dignity and belonging. Conviviality, however, takes an inhospitable turn when racialized women are subjected to undignified sociality. In exploring times when white Presbyterian women assisted with the community meals, the manner of their help coopted and disenfranchised racialized women from their service to the church and to God. What emerges is convivial inhospitality as racialized churchgoers are subjected to hierarchal interactions, making them feel like outsiders within their own church; yet, in caring for the wellbeing of white congregants to maintain social harmony and congregational unity, they tolerate the status quo which they see as Christian convivial hospitality.

Gościnność bezwarunkowa? Realizm chrześcijański w konfrontacji z filozofią postmodernistyczną

In view of the mass influx of refugees and immigrants from African and Middle Eastern countries, political elites of Western Europe have adopted an attitude of openness to all comers. In this situation, there appears the question of whether such a practice of hospitality was born under the influence of Christian doctrine or was inspired by contemporary postmodern philosophy, one representative of which is Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), who practiced a ‘philosophy of hospitality’. In his view, hospitality should be ‘absolute’ and ‘unconditional,’ which provides everything to newcomers and doesn’t require anything from them in return. Meanwhile, Christian hospitality should be characterized by a genuine concern for their welfare - both temporal and eternal. Then the offering of hospitality to infidels or unbelievers demands respect for certain rules protecting human dignity. The host is not also forced to renounce his religion, culture or land, as is suggested by the postmodern concept of ‘absolute hospitality’. It seems, however, that the immigration politics of Western countries is closer to unconditional hospitality, which assumes that every man is a citizen of the world, and the law cannot restrict hospitality or make its practice dependent on the fulfillment of certain conditions by the visitor.

Christian Hospitality: An Entrance to Christian Pastoral Assistance and Counseling in Times of Crisis

The need for pastoral assistance and counseling is increasingly being felt in various sectors of society, both Christian and non-Christian. The economic, social, and political crisis, which resulted in crises in other fields, including health, education, and morals, made a crisis that had a widespread impact in Indonesia. This has triggered the community's need for pastoral care and counseling. This works to help them through an interactive, reciprocal, and in-depth conversation to find the core of the problem and lead to a solution. However, for this interaction to occur, hospitality practices are undoubtedly needed so that the counselee is willing to be involved and open up. The purpose of this study was to examine the concept of hospitality as the first step in the presence of pastoral assistance and counseling in times of crisis for Christians. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The results showed that Christian hospitality requires counselors to have empathy and openness to counselees while sharpening their ability to carry out congregational counseling. Without it, the congregation will remain in a depressed and stressed existence due to the crisis they are facing.

Pandangan Hospitalitas Kristen Terhadap Korban Bencana Alam

The author through this paper, describes the Christian Hospitality’s view of the victims of natural disasters. It is a behavior that manifests a spirit of family and friendship, so that it is one’s responsibility toward another, as it is an interaction of friendship. Using the quantitative approach of literature of library study with data collection directed to the search of documents and information through books, journals, articles and websites, and apply descriptive methods of interpretative that produce three main points: First, the plurality of societies the experience natural disaster; Second, in the plurality of these disaster victims, Christian hospitality goes to victims of natural disasters; Third, this hospitality can be realized in love for everyone without looking at their identity, “love” can be realized in the service of deacon, prayer and pastoral or psychic mentoring of victims of natural disasters.

The Strangers’ Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders: Inaugurating a Hospitable World Order in Mid-Victorian Britain

This essay examines the Strangers’ Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders, in London, as a case study on nationalist mythmaking driven by anxieties over immigration. At this institution’s 1856 inaugural ceremony, Prince Albert encouraged Britons to behave like globally conscientious citizens vis-à-vis destitute migrants: the lascars or Asian seamen whose exploited labour fuelled east-west shipping from the seventeenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Discriminatory legislation barred them from permanent residency in Britain, forcing them into poverty despite their right to lawful settlement as British subjects. To expedite their repatriation, the Home’s missionary founders used pageantry and newsprint to promote patriotic narratives about Christian hospitality toward strangers. Their anti-immigrant philanthropy benefited an Indian Ocean recruitment system dependent on lascars’ redeployment, an indentured servitude that Evangelicals compared to transatlantic slavery. Consequently, global abolitionism functioned as a rhetorical device for distinguishing citizens from noncitizens in racialized terms before these categories were legally codified.

Teologi Hospitalitas: Sebuah Diskursus Konstruktif Agama Merevitalisasi Nilai-nilai Kemanusiaan

The sense of humanity has been disrupted by issues that have led to conflict and violence in the name of religion. Religious identity is often used as a barrier that sharply distinguishes adherents of one religion from another so that the identity differences put each as "strangers". Christianity strives to reflect and at the same time answer the challenges of the social and humanities crisis through theological discourses, both in academic and pastoral contexts. This article aims to offer a theological construction that reflects the law of love as a means of revitalizing human values. This qualitative approach using descriptive analysis methods from various literature resulted in a discourse on the theology of hospitality which embodies the law of love for others as an attitude of Christian hospitality in doing religion in a togetherness space. In conclusion, the theology of hospitality can be one of the doctrines to revitalize human values in doing religion from a Christian perspective.

Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear

Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear

Introducing a Conceptual Framework for Assessing Existing Models, Frameworks, and Approaches for Navigating Encounters Across Difficult Differences

Despite the Biblical account that God purposely created people to be different, multidisciplinary research suggests that people tend to struggle to positively encounter those who hold difficult, disagreeable, or contentious differences. Social work professionals have turned to a variety of frameworks, models, and approaches for pragmatic or paradigmatic recommendations for improving difficult encounters. However, there is not a vehicle for assessing these frameworks or to consider how they might positively or negatively influence encounters. Consequently, this paper proposes a new conceptual framework meant to assess and deconstruct existing frameworks. This article describes the Encountering Contentious Differences Conceptual Framework including an overview of its five sensitizing concepts. Illustrations are provided for how to utilize this Conceptual Framework in practice by applying it to three existing frameworks: the anti-oppressive practice/Intergroup Dialogue, inclusion/exclusion, and Christian hospitality frameworks. This article concludes with implications of the Conceptual Framework for social work practice, education, and research.

Christian Hospitality and the Case for Religious Refuge in Interregnum England

Abstract This article shows how English supporters of Jewish immigration in the 1650s articulated a universal model of Christian hospitality for all foreigners fleeing religious persecution, regardless of whether they adhered to the Protestant faith of their English hosts. It thus urges a reconsideration of the widespread assumption that European Christians in this era were willing only to admit their own co-religionists as refugees. At the same time, however, the article points to the 1650s as a pivotal turning point in the relationship between the resettlement of refugees and the development of the British Empire. Severe crises of depopulation in newly conquered Ireland and Jamaica prompted a proliferation of schemes to resettle refugees in those two spaces. Empire, it was argued, would allow the English to be benevolent and charitable without having to share their own country with people different from themselves.

Christian hospitality in Javanese bancaan tradition

Javanese people have unique characteristics and traditions that make them appealing for research. One of the unique things of the Javanese tradition called bancaan is that it is aimed at appreciating children. Bancaan is a simple banquet of gratitude on the occasion of a child’s birthday by inviting their playmates to pray together for their good. This tradition is rich in the value of hospitality but began to disappear as influences of current development overtake. Given this reality, this study discovered Christian values of hospitality in the bancaan tradition. This discovery is based on a survey by Lee Roy Martin and Michele Hersberger. This research is based on the paradigm of qualitative research. Data collection was conducted by examining the literature and studying the Bible. The problem was analysed using interactive analysis, revealing Christian hospitality values in the bancaan tradition. The values showed are as follows: (1) bancaan is open to everyone in nature despite their backgrounds, (2) bancaan is a form of interaction of hospitality in simplicity and (3) bancaan is a form of regeneration of hospitality values to the child.Contribution: This manuscript provided an overview of one form of Javanese culture, which was then linked to the principles of hospitality from Jesus. This culture was a form of Javanese culture towards children’s appreciation. It is hoped that this manuscript contributes to the preservation of Javanese bancaan culture.

Reading Luke: A Literary and Theological Commentary by Andrew E. Arterbury

Reviewed by: Reading Luke: A Literary and Theological Commentary by Andrew E. Arterbury Alexey Somov andrew e. arterbury, Reading Luke: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2019). Pp. xiv + 229. Paper $32. Arterbury’s commentary is intended for a broad audience, including scholars, but especially ministers and laypeople. Therefore, although it investigates basic lexical, historical, and critical issues, its principal aim is a literary and theological analysis. The commentary is preceded by an introduction, in which A. discusses Luke’s literary sources; the date and authorship of the Gospel; its intended audience, genre, and methodology, as well as its relation to the Acts of the Apostles. A. basically follows mainstream Lucan scholarship. This helps him to find a balanced approach, which avoids extremes and is suitable for the intended audience. In discussing Luke’s sources, A. makes his audience aware of the Two-Source Hypothesis and Austin Farrer’s theory, but he deliberately does not choose either one as both theories have their advantages and both face challenges. Luke also used his own materials, which [End Page 326] were oral and/or written. A. states that this Gospel was most likely composed between 80 and 100 c.e. Although the identification of the author with a physician and traveling companion of Paul is open to challenge, A. prefers to call the author Luke for convenience’s sake. The evangelist is featured as a well-educated Greek-speaking person of the second Christian generation who is very well versed in the OT. In relation to Acts, A. states that the two texts are not a continuous narrative—Acts is a later sequel to the Gospel. Luke’s intended audience is not a particular church community but a wider network including both Jewish and gentile Christians within the cultural world of the ancient Mediterranean basin, no matter their social status or gender. The genre of the Gospel is a sort of ancient biography revealing Jesus’s character and using his words and deeds to highlight his public accomplishments. A.’s methodology is a literary and theological reading of the final form of the text. He uses the English text from the NRSV and sometimes includes the transliterated Greek terms from Nestle-Aland28/UBS4. A. mostly relies on other commentaries and monographs on Luke but also uses his own Entertaining Angels: Early Christian Hospitality in Its Mediterranean Setting (New Testament Monographs 8; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2005) and several articles (see pp. 223–29). The commentary is divided into four main sections: a proper beginning (1:1–4:13); Jesus’s Galilean ministry (4:14–9:50), Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem (9:51–19:44), and Jesus in Jerusalem (19:45–24:53). Each section has subdivisions, including a short introductory summary discussing the pericopes in both their immediate and wider contexts and a more detailed analysis of shorter passages. In his exposition, A. expertly demonstrates how skillfully, from a literary and theological point of view, Luke compiles the episodes. For instance, Lucan literary talent is apparent in how he compares John and Jesus: he uses the rhetorical technique of synkrisis to demonstrate the superiority of Jesus to John in chaps. 1–3. Further, A. shows how Luke makes the episodes literarily consistent. To give a brief example, Luke 17:20–18:8 is composed of three shorter passages (17:20–21; 17:22–37; 18:1–8) which shape Jesus’s answer to the Pharisees’ question in 17:20 about the coming of the kingdom of God. In addition, Luke in a masterly way deploys his text intertextually to echo other biblical passages (e.g., Luke 18:27 and Gen 18:14 [p.147]). Arterbury’s style is engaging and interactive, as well as exegetically and theologically enriching. This makes the commentary easily accessible to readers at different levels. Unfortunately, the English text of Luke is cited only occasionally in the commentary. Its systematic inclusion at the beginning of each subsection would facilitate an easier engagement for readers unfamiliar with Luke and offer a more convenient interaction between the scriptural text and the commentary. In addition, although A. quite often quotes or refers to sources both Greco...

Embracing Otherness: Christian Practice of Hospitality

Christian practices are the activities that have been cooperatively performed over time addressing the fundamental needs of human existence, aiming to grow into a deeper knowledge of God, respond to God's active presence, and participate in God's continuous creation of the world. Hospitality is one of Christian essential practices deeply embedded in teachings of Christian tradition. Recently, ethical awakening of hospitality has arisen more and more, as the hatred tendency toward the different race or the refugee aggravates across the globe. Christian hospitality indicates a true willingness to accept others warmly without condition. Hospitality is not accidental but core to Christian belief and life. Christian doctrine confirms the very truth of God's hospitality with which S/He has embraced whole humanity and has offered the way of redemption. In this study, we will look into Christian practice of hospitality by reviewing the narratives of the Scriptures and then attempt to illuminate distinctiveness of Christian hospitality. When we are reminded of the term, "hospitality to needy stranger," it is easy for us to superficially misconstrue it as something "hierarchical" and "one directional flow" of power. However, Christian hospitality has nothing to do with "the powerful," "the dominant," or "the superior." Jesus, the best example of great hospitality and most wonderful host to the outcast, never is at the center or in power in society. Rather, Jesus identifies himself with the stranger, the marginalized, and the outcast. The core of Christian hospitality is in mutuality. The marginal Messiah welcomed other marginal people. Jesus invited others, cared for others, and offered generosity to others, while he sat at other people's tables as a guest and a recipient. In addition, genuine Christian hospitality means accepting others warmly and freely as strangers without coercion to change one’s difference and strangeness. One step further, Christian hospitality indicates not merely a one-time event but spiritual attitude to accept Others as the image of God in any circumstances. By practicing hospitality, Christian community promotes a resocialization process to restore the self-esteem of the marginalized. We also expect people who has experienced restoration of their self-esteem, in turn, can empower and inspire the others toward spiritual revival and redemption. Christian community can participate in God's work of redemption and restoration by practicing and extending God's hospitality in the world.